“We are thrilled to welcome Steven back to Warner Bros,” states Greg Silverman, Warner’s President of Creative Development and Worldwide Production. “We had a historic series of collaborations in the 1980s and 1990s and have wanted to bring him back for years. At Warners, we always have our eye on all the groundbreaking visual effects and technology available worldwide, and we feel very confidant with any new ground that Steven would want to tackle. He’s a master filmmaker, so we feel very comfortable with him.
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Ready Player One centers on a teenager named Wade Watts, who becomes obsessed with a virtual reality world known as Oasis, that allows players to live out their fantasies. After the game's creator suddenly dies, an elaborate treasure hunt is held within the Oasis world, with the winner emerging to take control of the entire company. This
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Exclusive: Steven Spielberg is set to direct Ready Player One, the highly anticipated project based on the popular sci-fi book by Ernest Cline that takes place in a virtual world. What a coup for Warner Bros, which will bring it to the screen along with Village Roadshow. This is expected to be Spielberg’s next movie after The Bfg.
Ready Player One also marks the director’s return to Warner Bros after a 14-year absence. The last picture he directed there was A.I. Artificial…
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Hungry for the delectable and deadly atmosphere of Michael Dougherty's Trick ’r Treat following the announcement last week that Legendary comics is releasing graphic novels of Trick ’r Treat and the upcoming Krampus? If so, then you might dig Cavity Colors' Cakepop Sam print, the latest addition to their Deadly Desserts line. The print depicts the creepy creature from Trick ’r Treat as a cake pop that's a festive feast for the eyes. Also featured in our latest round-up are details on the Kickstarter campaign for world-renowned special effects master Hiroshi Katagiri's debut film, Gehenna – Where Death Lives, as well as release details on Scream Factory's Blu-ray of the Patricia Arquette-starring possession film, Stigmata.

Cake Pop Sam Print: Cavity Colors' "Cakepop Sam" print is now available to purchase for $15.00:

Director Niell Blomkamp’s new sci-fi epic Chappie opened this weekend. The film tells the story of a robot who is given artificial intelligence by his inventor, but he must learn the ways of the world just like a child. However, his innocent mind is being molded by gangsters and violent criminals.

It’s still to be seen if Chappie will go down as a classic in the robot sci-fi genre, but if it whetted your appetite for artificial intelligence movies and android action scenes, here are nine of the best robotic heroes and nine of the craziest robotic villains in cinematic history.

Artificial intelligence – and its close link to the essence of humanity – is one of cinema’s favourite topics. There are tons of films about robots with varying degrees of sentience. 2001: A Space Odyssey, I, Robot, The Terminator, Blade Runner, Her, Wall-e, and A.I. Artificial Intelligence are just a few of them. The list could go on and on.

Blomkamp, Patel, and the Chappie crew go behind the science of artificial intelligence in the below two featurettes. Check them out below, and make sure to catch the film by the South African-Canadian director on Friday, March 6!

At least once a month, Cinelinx will chose one director for an in-depth examination of the “signatures” that they leave behind in their work. This week we’re examining the trademark style and calling signs of Stanley Kubrick as director.

Kubrick’s interest in visual arts began with photography before he became interested in filmmaking. He enjoyed making short films and became very proficient at doing so. Eventually he made his first feature film The Killing Fields (1953) as an exercise in low-budget filmmaking. That film was not a commercial success, and he had to work hard to get funding to keep working as a filmmaker. His next film, Killer’s Kiss (1955) involved a lot of experimentation, so much that it ended up eating into the budget and costing Kubrick a profit. As a result, he decided to work with a professional crew on his next film, The Killing (1956), which also did not become commercially successful,
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In case you missed it, the Oscars were this past weekend and Birdman was the big winner. The Academy’s choice to award Alejandro González Iñárritu's fever dream was a genuine shock, with Boyhood the running favourite for many months. Nonetheless, some things never change, and in that vein it's certainly a non-surprise the Academy also hardly noticed the most ambitious blockbuster of 2014: the Christopher Nolan space epic, Interstellar. Indeed, I use the phrase "non-surprise", because how could it be a winner when it was only nominated for the bare minimum of five Oscars in technical categories that are reserved as consolation prizes?

No, that’s a serious question. Because as much as I hate to admit it, I do. At their very best, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gets it right by tripping and falling into a “Market Irglova & Glen Hansard” here or a “12 minute standing ovation” there. At their very worst, AMPAS indulges in the most regressive, ass-backwards impulses of the industry. Whether enforcing asinine restrictions on eligibility or blacklisting via internal politics, Academy voters can be inept, close-minded and utterly humorless about their annual pat-on-the-back. Too old, too white, and too male, AMPAS is like a closet mob comprised solely of Bud Selig clones, perpetually fumbling in the dark for their reading glasses.

And yet despite all this, I’m still going to throw the remote through the television if Alexandre Desplat’s The Grand Budapest Hotel doesn’t bring
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Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Guardians of the Galaxy all received awards from the Make-up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild during its awards ceremony Feb. 14. Both Guardians and Grand Budapest are nominated for the Oscar for best makeup and hairstyling (along with Foxcatcher).

Aside from feature films, the Make-up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild Awards also recognizes make-up artists and hair stylists for television and new media, as well as television miniseries and made-for-tv movies. The guild first gave out awards in 2000 and continued through 2004 until they stopped for 10 years. The awards were again given out last year.
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A young programmer is selected to participate in a breakthrough experiment in artificial intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a breathtaking female A.I.

28 Days Later and Sunshine‘s Alex Garland moves from the writer’s desk to the director’s chair with his debut effort Ex Machina. Garland shows his ability to pen a believable science fiction tale, while still showing off directorial flair with a beautiful and claustrophobic style. Sadly though, outside of one or two moments, Ex Machina‘s whole isn’t as good as the sum of its parts. Like Ava herself, Ex Machina doesn’t feel complete.

Garland has made a smart play by taking on a small production for his first endeavour. Rather than hire a cast of a dozen characters with multiple locations, Ex Machina
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Imagine if Steven Spielberg had directed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone? It could have happened, as Spielberg was offered the job, but he turned it down, deciding to take his career in "another direction." That direction, as it happened, was Minority Report and A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
As you may or may not remember, it was around this time, fifteen years ago, that Spielberg's name was linked to the anticipated Philosophers/Sorcerer's Stone adaptation. This was back when J.K. Rowling's now-beloved magical series was only just starting to generate real buzz stateside. Take a look at this recently resurfaced news clipping, which announces that Steven Spielberg would not be directing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone...
We have the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and Oscars.org to thank for showcasing this 15-year-old clipping. It's included in the new Harry Potter Highlights page, which was recently
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A self-acknowledged "showcase for Academy Award frontrunners," the Santa Barbara International Film Festival is often overlooked for the actual films that earn it festival status. An amalgamation of international discoveries and ’merica’s circuit highlights, the Sbiff curates a week of best-of-the-best to pair with their star-praising. The 2015 edition offers another expansive selection, bookended by two films that aren’t on any radars just yet.
Sbiff will open with "Desert Dancer," producer Richard Raymond’s directorial debut. Starring Reece Ritchie and Frieda Pinto, the drama follows a group of friends who wave off the harsh political climate of Iran’s 2009 presidential election in favor of forming a dance team, picking up moves from Michael Jackson, Gene Kelly and Rudolf Nureyev thanks to the magic of YouTube.
The festival will close with "McFarland, USA," starring Kevin Costner and Maria Bello. Telling the 1987 true story of a Latino high school’s underdog cross-country team,
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For a certain music fan, the '90s are defined by the collaborations between knob twiddler Aphex Twin and director Chris Cunningham. The pair delivered two of the most iconic videos of the decade with "Come to Daddy" and "Windowlicker," while Cunningham also directed the beautiful video for Bjork's "All Is Full Of Love" (which reportedly features some of the work he did for Stanley Kubrick on "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" during his brief association with the project, and obviously before Steven Spielberg became involved). But where has Cunningham been lately? He's been doing commercials and music videos here and there, while also being loosely affiliated with various big screen projects that never seem to pan out. But it seems he has one in the can...he's just not going to release it.
In a feature for Groove, the electronic artist took questions from other musicians, and Gernot Bronsert of Moderat asked,
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